Fishing is About to Change

Practices like bottom trawling, blast fishing and cyanide fishing result in unintentional by-catch and the destruction of coral reefs. As the world’s population continues to increase, finding regenerative sources of protein is imperative. Kulisha is betting on the Black Soldier Fly as this alternative source of protein.

Food Tech Connect’s Millennial Innovators Uprooting Our Food System series, which profiles the bright, creative and driven university students from around the world and make up Thought For Food a next generation food innovation platform interviewed Eric Katz one of the founders:

Katz was working on the Quinault Indian Nation, one of the largest salmon hatcheries in the US and was talking to his soon to be co-founder about an interesting concept in which a social enterprise was encouraging rural people to farm insects as a source of human food because of its nutritional benefits.

He told Katz about the village he grew up visiting in Kenya, and how it was being ravaged by trawlers that are fishing for small fish for use in animal feed. He said, ‘you know what would be cool? If you could replace these fish with insects .’

Kulisha addresses two problems with one solution. First, they support food and beverage producers — such as breweries, restaurants, and fruit and vegetable processing plants — by treating their organic waste. Waste from these producers is rich in carbohydrates and proteins, yet often is not valorized and ends up in landfills. Disposal of this waste is costly, time-intensive, and inconvenient for these companies.

Katz has some advice for other food startups that want to change the world. “Dip into all existing resources and networks that are accessible to you! Constantly getting your idea questioned is the best way to develop it, and when people identify problems they can often help to identify solutions. Make connections, build your network—food security is truly a global wicked problem and there are so many amazing minds tackling various facets of it that you can’t afford not to make connections with others”.